Holy Family Elementary School

School is out for summer and we sadly say goodbye to some very special faculty and staff members after concluding the 23-24 school year! Mrs. Teresa Schrant, 4th grade teacher, devoted the last 43 years of her life to teaching and growing the young minds of the students that walked into her 4B classroom! The amount of dedication, work and prayer that she put in day after day at Holy Family Elementary, and previously St. Joseph Elementary, are truly phenomenal! From our annual and much anticipated Shrove Tuesday Pancake Races, to our Gifts in a Jar fundraiser, she thought up and expanded upon so many special events and projects that make HFE the special school that it is year after year! We appreciate the extra hours she put into helping our students become confident altar servers each morning before mass, purchasing and setting out special Valentine's Day bags for all faculty, staff and religious so that students could share extra Valentines around the building, and changing out absolutely beautiful displays in our school display case for each season to make the building feel warm and inviting! The prayer she created each school year that includes each of her student's names were spoken together as a class at the end of each school day before dismissal. Mrs. Schrant made each and every child in her classroom feel heard, special, valued and loved! Her devotion to her Catholic faith was evident in her teaching styles and the way she approached difficult situations each year. So many of the wonderful service projects that make our school such a beautiful place were created and organized by Mrs. Schrant, including Mary's Baby Shower! The students and staff will miss her, but we look forward to having her around the building as a substitute, or helping out with special masses!

Mrs. Karen Rohr, 1st grade teacher, taught for 18 years in Catholic Schools, and 14 of those years we were lucky to have her at Holy Family! She loved working with 1st graders, helping them achieve their reading goals, and she knew this was not a job to be taken lightly, as those skills are so important for the future of those little ones moving forward in their education. Her ideas for using sight word booklets for each individual student to study, yet giving them the challenge to read longer sentences after feeling comfortable with each word, helped so many of our students become confident in their reading abilities! Mrs. Rohr was passionate about evangelization and often organized the traveling chalice that the homerooms each got an opportunity to pray over for a week every spring in their classrooms. We will miss her extremely kind and warm presence, her friendly smile and greeting each morning, and her energy and love for her students!

We wish Mrs. Schrant and Mrs. Rohr the best in their retirements after so many years they dedicated to our Hays Catholic Schools! We also say goodbye to Mrs. Alexandra Rome, Music Teacher, Mrs. Megan Gottschalk, P.E. Teacher, Ms. Maggie Conant, School Cook, and Mr. Coy DeWaal, School Custodian! We wish them all the best as they begin new chapters in their lives and look forward to seeing what is ahead for them! Thank you for your hard work and dedication to Holy Family over the years!